Our client, a 48 year old woman from the West Midlands, was awarded £14,000 in an out of court settlement following her dentist’s inadequate treatment.

Mrs O visited the defendant, Dr E, between 1993 and 2009 for regular dental appointments. X rays taken during his period of care show that there was tooth decay present at two of her upper teeth and one of her lower teeth. Dr E provided a filling at one of the upper teeth but left the other two untreated.

In May 2006 Mrs O began having problems with the tooth which had been filled. The area around the tooth was painful so Dr E filled the tooth again but three months later the filling broke and a replacement was provided.

Mrs O’s concerns grew when the following year, two more of her fillings broke. Although Dr E provided replacements fillings, in October 2007 she decided to visit to her friend, who is a dentist, for an informal examination. This dentist took an X ray which showed that three of her teeth were decayed. After the visit Mrs O went back to Dr E who performed root canal treatment on one of the decayed teeth.

The problems didn’t stop there. The following year a further two fillings broke on her lower teeth but it wasn’t until November 2009 that Dr E told Mrs O that one of her teeth was beyond repair and would need to be removed. Mrs O decided to consult her friend again who took an X ray which confirmed that there was tooth decay present at three teeth and that the root canal treatment at LR5 was completed to a poor standard.

After learning this news Mrs O changed to a different dentist who confirmed that the three teeth were severely decayed and the root canal treatment was inadequate. Mrs O had one of the decayed teeth extracted, and is expected to lose the other two decayed teeth, and the tooth which had the poor root canal treatment, in the near future.

Although Dr E made no formal admission of liability for the poor dental treatment, the Dental Law Partnership successfully brought a case of dental negligence against Dr E and Mrs O was awarded £14,000 in an out of court settlement for corrective treatment.